SOME  ASPECTS  OF 
INDUSTRIAL  CHEMISTRY 


BY 


L.  H.  BAEKELAND,  Sc.D. 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1914 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF 
INDUSTRIAL  CHEMISTRY 


THE  CHANDLER  LECTURE 
1914 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
SALES  AGENTS 

NEW  YORK: 

LEMCKE  &  BUECHNER 
30-82  WEST  27TH  STREET 

LONDON: 

HUMPHREY  MILFORD 
AMEN  CORNER,  E.C. 

TORONTO: 

HUMPHREY  MILFORD 
25  RICHMOND  ST..  W. 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF 
INDUSTRIAL  CHEMISTRY 


BY 

L.  H.  BAEKELAND,  Sc.D. 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1914. 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1014 
By  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


Set  up,  and  electrotyped.    Published.  July,  1914 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF 
INDUSTRIAL  CHEMISTRY 


WHILE  I  appreciate  deeply  the  distinction  of  speaking 
before  you  on  the  occasion  of  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of 
the  Columbia  School  of  Mines,  I  realize,  at  the  same  time, 
that  nobody  here  present  could  do  better  justice  to  the 
subject  which  has  been  chosen  for  this  lecture  than  the 
beloved  master  in  whose  honor  the  Charles  Frederick 
Chandler  Lectureship  has  been  created. 

Dr.  Chandler,  in  his  long  and  eminently  useful  career 
as  a  professor  and  as  a  public  servant,  has  assisted  at  the 
very  beginning  of  some  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  of 
applied  chemistry,  here  and  abroad. 

Some  of  his  pupils  have  become  leaders  in  chemical  in- 
dustry; others  have  found  in  his  teachings  the  very  con- 
ception of  new  chemical  processes  which  made  their  names 
known  throughout  the  whole  world. 

f     Industrial  chemistry  has  been  defined  as  "the  chemistry 
of  dollars  and  cents." 

This  rather  cynical  definition,  in  its  nar- 
ih'm^t1"*1  rower  interpretation,  seems  to  ignore  entirely 
mere  money-  the  f  ar-reaching  economic  and  civilizing  influ- 
proposftion?  ences  which  have  been  brought  to  life  through 
the  applications  of  science;  it  fails  to  do  justice 
to  the  fact  that  the  whole  fabric  of  modern  civilization 
becomes  each  day  more  and  ever  more  interwoven  with  the 
endless  ramifications  of  applied  chemistry. 

The  earlier  effects  of  this  influence  do  not  date  back  much 


beyond  one  hundred  and  odd  years.     They  became  dis- 
'    tiiictly  evident  d  uririg  the  first  French  Repub- 

Begmnmgsof  f  j          TWT 

chemical          lie,    increased    under    Napoleon,     gradually 
spread   to   neighboring    countries,    and   then 
reaching    out    farther,    their    influence    is    now    obvious 
throughout  the  whole  world. 

France,  during  the  revolution,  scattered  to 

Republic  and     the  winds  old  traditions  and  conventionalities, 

in  culture  as  well  as  in  politics.    Until  then,  she 

had  mainly  impressed  the  world  by  the  barbaric,  wasteful 

splendor  of  her  opulent  kings,  at  whose  courts  the  devotees 

of  science   received  scant   attention  in  com- 

France^eg-     parison  to  the  more  ornamental  artists  and 

inctfavorcofnce    bcUes-lettrfsts,  who  were  petted  and  rewarded 

arts  and          alongside   of  the   all-important   men   of   the 

literature 

sword. 

In  fact,  as  far  as  the  culture  of  science  was  concerned, 
the  Netherlands,  Germany  and  Italy,  and  more  particu- 
larly, England,  were  head  and  shoulders  above  the  France 
of  "le  Hoi  Soleil." 

The  struggles  of  the  new  regime  put  France  in  the  awk- 
ward position  of  the  legendary  beaver  which  "had  to  climb 
a  tree." 

If  for  no  other  reason,  she  needed  scientists  to  help  her 
in  her  wars  against  the  rulers  of  other  European  nations. 
She  needed  them  just  as  much  for  repairing  her  crippled 
finances  and  her  badly  disturbed  industries  which  were 
dependent  upon  natural  products  imported  until  then,  but 
of  which  the  supply  had  suddenly  been  cut  off  by  the  so- 
called  Continental  Blockade.  Money-prizes 

Creation  of  .  J   \ 

French  patent  and  other  inducements  had  been  offered  for 
stimulating  the  development  of  chemical  pro- 
cesses, and — what  is  more  significant — patent  laws  were 
promulgated  so  as  to  foster  invention. 

Nicolas  Leblanc's  method  for  the  manufacture  of  soda 

6 


to  replace  the  imported  alkalis,  Berthollet's  method  for 
bleaching  with  chlorine,  the  beet-sugar  industry  to  replace 
cane  sugar  imported  from  the  colonies,  and  several  other 
processes,  were  proposed. 

All  these  chemical  processes  found  themselves  soon  lifted 
from  the  hands  of  the  secretive  alchemist  or  the  timid 
pharmacist  to  the  rank  of  real  manufacturing  methods: 
Industrial  chemistry  had  begun  its  lusty  career. 

First  successes  stimulated  new  endeavors  and  small  won- 
der is  it  that  France,  with  these  favorable  conditions  at 
hand,  for  a  while  at  least,  entered  into  the  most  glorious 
period  of  that  part  of  her  history  which  relates  to  the  devel- 
opment of  chemistry,  and  the  arts  dependent  thereon. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  that,  at  that  time, 

Backward  ' 

position  of  Germany,  which  now  occupies- such  an  enviable 
position  in  chemistry,  was  so  far  behind  that 
even  in  1822,  when  Liebig  wanted  to  study  chemistry  at 
the  best  schools,  he  had  to  leave  his  own  country,  and  turn 
to  Gay-Lussac,  Thenard  and  Dulong  in  Paris. 

But  the  British  were  not  slow  to  avail  them- 
?feBeritishent  selves  of  the  new  opportunities  in  chemical 
industcal  manufacturing  so  clearly  indicated  by  the  first 
successes  of  the  French.  Their  linen  bleach- 
eries  in  Scotland  and  England  soon  used  an  improved 
method  for  bleaching  with  chloride  of  lime,  developed  by 
Tennant,  which  brought  along  the  manufacture  of  other 
chemicals  relating  thereto,  like  sulphuric  acid  and  soda. 

The  chemical  reactions  involved  in  all  these  processes 
are  relatively  simple,  and  after  they  were  once  well  under- 
stood, it  required  mainly  resourceful  engineering  and  good 
commercial  abilities  to  build  up  successfully  the  industries 
based  thereon. 

From  this  epoch  on  dates  the  beginning  of  the  develop- 
ment of  that  important  industry  of  heavy  chemicals  in 
which  the  British  led  the  world  for  almost  a  century. 

7 


In  the  same  way,  England  had  become  the  leader  in  an- 
other important  branch  of  chemical  industry — the  manu- 
facture of  coal-gas. 

The  Germans  were  soon  to  make  up  for  lost 

Liebig's  ... 

influence  in  time.  Those  same  German  universities,  which 
when  Liebig  was  a  young  man  were  so  poorly 
equipped  for  the  study  of  chemistry,  were  now  enthusi- 
astically at  work  on  research  along  the  newer  developments 
of  the  physical  sciences,  and,  before  long,  the  former  pupils 
of  France,  in  their  turn,  became  teachers  of  the  world. 

Liebig  had  inaugurated  for  the  chemical  students  work- 
ing under  him  his  system  of  research  laboratories;  how- 
ever modest  these  laboratories  may  have  been  at  that  time, 
they  carried  bodily  the  study  of  chemistry  from  pedagogic 
boresomeness  into  a  captivating  cross-examination  of 
nature. 

And  it  seemed  as  if  nature  had  been  waiting  impa- 
tiently to  impart  some  of  her  secrets  to  the  children  of  men, 
who  for  so  many  generations  had  tried  to  settle  Truth  and 
Knowledge  by  words  and  oratory  and  by  brilliant  displays 
of  metaphysical  controversies. 

Indeed,  at  that  time,  a  few  kitchen  tables,  some  clumsy 
glass-ware,  a  charcoal  furnace  or  two,  some  pots  and  pans, 
and  a  modest  balance  were  all  that  was  needed  to  make 
nature  give  her  answers. 

These  modest  paraphernalia,  eloquent  by 
their  very  simplicity,  brought  forth  rapidly 
succeeding  discoveries.  One  of  them  was  truly 
sensational:  Liebig  and  Wohler  succeeded  in 
accomplishing  the  direct  synthesis  of  urea;  thinking  men 
began  to  realize  the  far-reaching  import  of  this  revolu- 
tionary discovery  whereby  a  purely  organic  substance  had 
been  created  in  the  laboratory  by  starting  exclusively  from 
inorganic  materials.  This  result  upset  all  respected  doc- 

8 


1 


trines  that  organic  substances  are  of  a  special  enigmatic 
constitution,  altogether  different  from  inorganic  or  mineral 
compounds,  and  that  they  only  could  be  built  up  by  the 
agency  of  the  so-called  "vital  force"— whatever  that  might 
mean. 

Research  in  organic  chemistry  became  more  and  more 

fascinating;  all  available  organic  substances  were  being 

investigated  one  after  another  by  restless  experimentalists. 

Coal-tar,  heretofore  a  troublesome  by-prod- 

Tne  influence      A  •  •* 

ofKekui6's  uct  of  gas  manufacture,  notwithstanding  its 
uninviting,  ill-smelling,  black  sticky  appear- 
ance, did  not  escape  the  general  inquisitive  tendency;  some 
of  its  constituents,  like  benzol  or  others,  were  isolated  and 
studiecL 

Under  the  brilliant  leadership  of  Kekule,  a  successful 
attempt  was  made  to  correlate  the  rapidly  increasing  new 
experimental  observations  in  organic  chemistry  into  a  new 
theory  which  would  try  to  explain  all  the  numerous  facts; 
a  theory  which  became  the  sign-post  to  the  roads  of  further 
achievements. 

The  discovery  of  quickly  succeeding  pro- 
cesses  ^or  making  from  coal-tar  derivatives 
numerous  artificial  dyes,  rivaling,  if  not  sur- 
passing, the  most  brilliant  colors  of  nature,  made  the  group 
of  bold  investigators  still  bolder.     Research  in  organic 
chemistry  began  to  find  rapid  rewards;  entirely  new  and 
successful  industries  based  on  purely  scientific  data  were 
springing  up  in  England  and  France,  as  well  as  in  Ger- 
many. 

Some  wide-awake  leaders  of  these  new  en- 

Stimulating  .  .      ,      ,      .       - 

influences  of  terprises,  more  particularly  in  Germany,  soon 
dustryVn1"  learned  that  they  were  never  hampered  by  too 
chemist  much  knowledge,  but  that,  on  the  contrary, 

they  were  almost  continuously  handicapped 
in  their  impatient  onward  march  by  insufficient  know- 

9 


ledge,  or  by  misleading  conceptions,  if  not  by  incorrect 
published  facts. 

This  is  precisely  where  the  study  of  organic  chemistry 
received  its  greatest  stimulating  influence  and  soon  put 
Germany,  in  this  branch  of  science,  ahead  of  all  other  na- 
tions. 

Money  and  effort  had  to  be  spent  freely  for  further  re- 
search. The  best  scholars  in  chemistry  were  called  into 
action.  Some  men,  who  were  preparing  themselves  to  be- 
come professors,  were  induced  to  take  a  leading  part  as 
directors  in  one  or  another  of  the  new  chemical  enterprises. 
Others,  who  refused  to  forsake  their  teachers'  career,  were 
retained  as  advisers  or  guides,  and,  in  several  instances,  the 
honor  of  being  the  discoverers  of  new  processes,  or  a  new 
dye,  was  made  more  substantial  by  financial  rewards.  The 
modest  German  university  professor,  who  heretofore  had 
lived  within  a  rather  narrow  academic  sphere,  went 
through  a  process  of  evolution,  where  the  rapidly  growing 
chemical  industry  made  him  realize  his  latent  powers  and 
greater  importance,  and  broadened  his  influence  way 
beyond  the  confines  of  his  lecture-room.  Even  if  he  were 
altruistic  enough  to  remain  indifferent  to  fame  or  money, 
he  felt  stimulated  by  the  very  thought  that  he  was  helping, 
in  a  direct  manner,  to  build  up  the  nation  and  the  world 
through  the  immediate  application  of  the  principles  of 
science. 

'  industrial  ^n  ^e  beginning,  science  did  all  the  giving 

research  and  chemical  industry  got  most  of  the  rewards ; 

laboratories       ,  .1         ^i       i_  i  ,1 

but  soon  the  roles  began  to  change  to  the  point 
where  frequently  they  became  entirely  inverted.  The  uni- 
versities did  not  furnish  knowledge  fast  enough  to  keep 
pace  with  the  requirements  of  the  rapidly  developing  new 
industries.  Modern  research  laboratories  were  organized 
by  some  large  chemical  factories  on  a  scale  never  conceived 
before,  with  a  lavishness  which  made  the  best  equipped 

10 


university  laboratory  appear  like  a  timid  attempt.  Ger- 
many, so  long  behind  France  and  England,  had  become  the 
recognized  leader  in  organic  manufacturing  processes,  and 
developed  a  new  industrial  chemistry  based  more  on  the 
thorough  knowledge  of  organic  chemistry  than  on  en- 
gineering skill. 

In  this  relation,  it  is  worth  while  to  point  out 
11    l  that  the  early  organic  industrial  chemistry, 


through  which  Germany  was  soon  to  become  so 
variety  than     important,  at  first  counted  its  output  not  in 

in  size  x  ... 

tons,  but  in  pounds  —  not  in  size  nor  in  quan- 
tity, but  in  variety  and  quality.^ 

Now  let  us  see  how  Germany  won  her  spurs  in  chemical 
engineering  as  well  : 

At  the  beginning,  the  manufacturing  prob- 
in  organic  chemistry  involved  few,  if  any, 
seri°us  engineering  difficulties,  but  required, 
most  of  all,  a  sound  theoretical  knowledge  of 
the  subject;  this  put  a  premium  on  the  scientist,  and  could 
afford,  for  awhile  at  least,  to  ignore  the  engineer.  But 
when  growing  developments  began  to  claim  the  help  of 
good  engineers,  there  was  no  difficulty  whatsoever  in  sup- 
plying them,  nor  in  making  them  cooperate  with  the  scien- 
tists. In  fact,  since  then,  Germany  has  solved,  just  as 
successfully,  some  of  the  most  extraordinary  chemical  en- 
gineering problems  ever  undertaken,  although  the  devel- 
opment of  such  processes  was  entered  upon  at  first  from 
the  purely  scientific  side. 

In  almost  every  case,  it  was  only  after  the  underlying 
scientific  facts  had  been  well  established,  that  any  attempt 
was  made  to  develop  them  commercially. 

Healthy  commercial  development   of  new 


veiopment  of    scientific  processes  does  not  build  its  hope  of 

scientific  .  ..  .  £     ,  ,  x          „ 

processes         success  upon  the  cooperation  of  that  class  01 
"promoters"  which  are  always  eager  to  find 
11 


any  available  pretext  for  making  "quick  money,"  and 
whose  scientific  ignorance  contributes  conveniently  to 
their  comfort  by  not  interfering  too  much  with  their 
self-assurance  and  their  voluble  assertions.  The  his- 
tory of  most  of  the  successful  recent  chemical  processes 
abounds  in  examples  where,  even  after  the  underlying 
principles  were  well  established,  long  and  costly  prepara- 
tory team-work  had  to  be  undertaken;  where  foremost 
scientists,  as  well  as  engineers  of  great  ability,  had  to  com- 
bine their  knowledge,  their  skill,  their  perseverance,  with 
the  support  of  large  chemical  companies,  who, 
banking0  m  their  turn,  could  rely  on  the  financial  back- 
ing of  strong  banking  concerns,  well  advised 
by  tried  expert  specialists. 

History  does  not  record  how  many  processes  thus  sub- 
mitted to  careful  study  were  rejected  because,  on  close 
examination,  they  were  found  to  possess  some  hopeless 
shortcomings.  In  this  way,  numerous  fruitless  efforts  and 
financial  losses  were  averted,  where  less  carefully  accumu- 
lated knowledge  might  have  induced  less  scrupulous 
promoters  to  secure  money  for  plausible  but  ill-advised 
enterprises. 

In  the  history  of  the  manufacture  of  arti- 
°f  **c*al  dyes,  no  chapter  gives  a  more  striking 
instance  of  long,  assiduous  and  expensive  pre- 
liminary work  of  the  highest  order  than  the  development 
of  the  industrial  synthesis  of  indigo.  Here  was  a  substance 
of  enormous  consumption  which,  until  then,  had  been 
obtained  from  the  tropics  as  a  natural  product  of  agricul- 
ture. Professor  von  Baeyer  and  his  pupils,  by  long  and 
marvelously  clever  laboratory  work,  succeeded  by  and  by 
in  unraveling  the  chemical  constitution  of  this  indigo 
dye,  and  finally  indicated  some  possible  methods  of  syn- 
thesis. Notwithstanding  all  this,  it  took  the  Badische  Ani- 

12 


line  &  Soda  Fabrik  about  twenty  years  of  patient  research 
work,  carried  out  by  a  group  of  eminent  chemists  and  en- 
gineers, before  a  satisfactory  method  was  devised  by  which 
the  artificial  product  could  compete  in  price  and  in  quality 
with  natural  indigo. 

Germany,  with  her  well  administered  and 

easily  enforcible  patent  laws,  has  added, 
s  stemPatent  through  this  very  agency,  a  most  vital  induce- 

ment for  pioneer  work  in  chemical  industries. 
Who  otherwise  would  dare  to  take  the  risk  of  all  the  ex- 
penses connected  with  this  class  of  creative  work?  More- 
over, who  would  be  induced  to  publish  the  result  of  his 
discoveries  far  and  wide  throughout  the  whole  world  in 
that  steadily  flowing  stream  of  patent  literature,  which, 
much  sooner  than  any  text-books  or  periodicals,  enables 
one  worker  to  be  benefited  and  to  be  inspired  by  the  pub- 
lication of  the  latest  work  of  others? 

The  development  of  some  problems  of  in- 
scopenof  10nal    dustrial  chemistry  has  enlisted  the  brilliant 


collaboration  of  men  of  so  many  different 
nationalities  that  the  final  success  could  not, 
with  any  measure  of  justice,  be  ascribed  exclusively  to  one 
single  race  or  nation;  this  is  best  illustrated  by  the  inven- 
tion of  the  different  methods  for  the  fixation  of  nitrogen 
from  the  air. 

An  E  os  of          This  extraordinary  achievement,  although 
Applied  scarcely  a  few  years  old,  seems  already  an  ordi- 

Science  v    i      •       li          i     •          /» 

nary  link  in  the  chain  of  common,  current 
events  of  our  busy  life  ;  and  yet,  the  facts  connected  with 
this  recent  conquest  reveal  a  modern  tale  of  great  deeds  of 
the  race  —  an  Epos  of  Applied  Science. 

Its  story  began  the  day  when  chemistry  taught  us  how 
indispensable  are  the  nitrogeneous  substances  for  the 
growth  of  all  living  beings. 

Generally  speaking,  the  most  expensive  food-stuffs  are 

13 


precisely  those  which  contain  most  nitrogen;  for  the  sim- 

ple reason  that  there  is,  and  always  has  been, 

StrogenCfer-     at  sometime   or  another,   a   shortage   of   ni- 

agricuiture       trogeneous  foods  in  the  world.     Agriculture 

furnishes  us  these  proteid-  or  nitrogen-con- 

taining bodies,  whether  we  eat  them  directly  as  vegetable 

products,  or  indirectly  as  animals  which  have  assimilated 

the  proteids  from  plants.    It  so  happens,  however,  that  by 

our  ill-balanced  methods  of  agriculture,  we  take  nitrogen 

from  the  soil  much  faster  than  it  is  supplied  to  the  soil 

through  natural  agencies.    We  have  tried  to  remedy  this 

discrepancy  by  enriching  the  soil  with  manure  or  other 

fertilizers,  but  this  has  been  found  totally  insufficient,  espe- 

cially with  our  methods  of  intensive  culture  —  our  fields 

want  more  nitrogen.     So  agriculture  has  been  looking 

anxiously  around  to  find  new  sources  of  nitrogen  fer- 

tilizer.   For  a  short  time,  an  excellent  supply 

was  found  in  the  guano  deposits  of  Peru; 

but  this  material  was  used  up  so  eagerly  that  the  supply 

lasted  only  a  very  few  years.    In  the  meantime,  the  ammo- 

nium salts  recovered  from  the  by-products  of  the  gas-works 

have  come  into  steady  use  as  nitrogen  fertilizer.    But,  here 

again,  the  supply  is  entirely  insufficient,  and 

peter  and  its     during  the  later  period  our  main  reliance  has 


keen  placed  on  the  natural  beds  of  sodium 
nitrate,  which  are  found  in  the  desert  regions 
of  Chile.    This  has  been,  of  late,  our  principal  source  of 
nitrogen  for  agriculture,  as  well  as  for  the  many  industries 
which  require  saltpeter  or  nitric  acid. 

In  1898,  Sir  William  Crookes,  in  his  memorable  presi- 
dential address  before  the  British  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  called  our  attention  to  the  threaten- 
ing fact  that,  at  the  increasing  rate  of  consumption,  the 
nitrate  beds  of  Chile  would  be  exhausted  before  the  middle 
of  this  century.  Here  was  a  warning  —  an  alarm  call  — 

14 


raised  to  the  human  race  by  one  of  the  deepest  scientific 

thinkers  of  our  generation.  It  meant  no  more 
Station  nor  *ess  t^ian  tnat  before  long  our  race  would 

be  confronted  with  nitrogen  starvation.  In  a 
given  country,  all  other  conditions  being  equal,  the  abun- 
dance or  the  lack  of  nitrogen  available  for  nutrition  is  a 
paramount  factor  in  the  degree  of  general  welfare,  or  of 
physical  decadence.  The  less  nitrogen  there  is  available 
as  food-stuffs,  the  nearer  the  population  is  to  starvation. 
The  great  famines  in  such  nitrogen-deficient  countries  as 
India  and  China  and  Russia  are  sad  examples  of  nitrogen 
starvation. 

And  yet,  nitrogen,  as  such,  is  so  abundant  in  nature  that 
it  constitutes  four-fifths  of  the  air  we  breathe.  Every 
square  mile  of  our  atmosphere  contains  nitrogen  enough  to 
satisfy  our  total  present  consumption  for  over  half  a  cen- 
tury. However,  this  nitrogen  is  unavailable  as  long  as  we 
do  not  find  means  to  make  it  enter  into  some  suitable 
chemical  combination.  Moreover,  nitrogen  was  generally 
considered  inactive  and  inert,  because  it  does  not  enter 
readily  in  chemical  combination. 

William  Crookes'  disquieting  message  of  rapidly  ap- 
proaching nitrogen  starvation  did  not  cause  much  worry 
to  politicians — they  seldom  look  so  far  ahead  into  the 
future.  But,  to  the  men  of  science,  it  rang  like  a  reproach 
to  the  human  race.  Here,  then,  we  were  in  possession  of 
an  inexhaustible  store  of  nitrogen  in  the  air,  and  yet,  unless 
we  found  some  practical  means  for  tying  some  of  it  into  a 
suitable  chemical  combination,  we  would  soon  be  in  a  posi- 
tion similar  to  that  of  a  shipwrecked  sailor,  drifting  around 

on  an  immense  ocean  of  brine,  and  yet  slowly 
Priestley-  dying  f  or  lack  of  drinking  water. 

^s  a  guying  beacon,  there  was,  however, 

that  simple  experiment,  carried  out  in  a  little 
glass  tube,  as  far  back  as  1785,  by  both  Cavendish  and 

15 


Priestley,  which  showed  that  if  electric  sparks  were  passed 
through  air,  the  oxygen  thereof  was  able  to  burn  some  of 
the  nitrogen  and  to  engender  nitrous  vapors. 

This  seemingly  unimportant-' laboratory  cu- 
Lovejoy  ***     riosity,  so  long  dormant  in  the  text-books,  was 

made  a  starting  point  by  Charles  S.  Bradley 
and  D.  R.  Love  joy,  in  Niagara  Falls,  for  creating  the 
first  industrial  apparatus  for  converting  the  nitrogen  of 
the  air  into  nitric  acid  by  means  of  the  electric  arc. 

As  early  as  1902,  they  published  their  results  as  well 
as  the  details  of  their  apparatus.  Although  they  operated 
only  one  full-sized  unit,  they  demonstrated  conclusively 
that  nitric  acid  could  thus  be  produced  from  the  air  in  un- 
limited quantities.  We  shall  examine  later  the  reasons 
why  this  pioneer  enterprise  proved  a  commercial  insuccess ; 
but  to  these  two  American  inventors  belongs,  undoubtedly, 
the  credit  of  having  furnished  the  first  answer  to  the  dis- 
tress call  of  Sir  William  Crookes. 

In  the  meantime,  many  other  investigators 
fndkEyde         were  at  work  at  tne  same  problem,  and  soon 

from  Norway's  abundant  waterfalls  came  the 
news  that  Birkeland  and  Eyde  had  solved  successfully,  and 
on  a  commercial  scale,  the  same  problem  by  a  differently 
constructed  apparatus.  The  Germans,  too,  were  working 
on  the  same  subject,  and  we  heard  that  Schoenherr,  also 

Pauling,  had  evolved  still  other  methods,  all, 
ScholSerc*  however,  based  on  the  Cavendish-Priestley 

principle  of  oxidation  of  nitrogen.  In  Norway 
alone,  the  artificial  saltpeter  factories  use  now,  day  and 
night,  over  200,000  electrical  horse-power,  which  will  soon 
be  doubled;  while  a  further  addition  is  contemplated  which 
will  bring  the  volume  of  electric  current  consumed  to  about 
500,000  horse-power.  The  capital  invested  at  present  in 
these  works  amounts  to  $27,000,000. 

16 


Frank  and  Caro,  in  Germany,  succeeded  in  creating  an- 
other profitable  industrial  process  whereby  nitrogen  could 
be  fixed  by  carbide  of  calcium,  which  converts 
Caro's  it  into  calcium  cyanamide,  an  excellent  fer- 

tilizer by  itself.  By  the  action  of  steam  on 
cyanamide,  ammonia  is  produced,  or  it  can  be  made  the 
starting  point  of  the  manufacture  of  cyanides,  so  profusely 
used  for  the  treatment  of  gold  and  silver  ores. 

Although  the  synthetic  nitrates  have  found  a  field  of 
their  own,  their  utilization  for  fertilizers  is  smaller  than 
that  of  the  cyanamide;  and  the  latter  industry  represents, 
to-day,  an  investment  of  about  $30,000,000,  with  three  fac- 
tories in  Germany,  two  in  Norway,  two  in  Sweden,  one  in 
France,  one  in  Switzerland,  two  in  Italy,  one  in  Austria, 
one  in  Japan,  one  in  Canada,  but  not  any  in  the  United 
States.  The  total  output  of  cyanamide  is  valued  at  $15,- 
000,000  yearly  and  employs  200,000  horse-power,  and 
preparations  are  made  at  almost  every  existing  plant  for 
further  extensions.  An  English  company  is  contemplating 
the  application  of  1,000,000  horse-power  to  the  production 
of  cyanamide  and  its  derivatives,  600,000  of  which  have 
been  secured  in  Norway  and  400,000  in  Iceland. 

But  still  other  processes  are  being  developed, 
processes  based  on  the  fact  that  certain  metals  or  metal- 
loids can  absorb  nitrogen,  and  can  thus  be 
converted  into  nitrides ;  the  latter  can  either  be  used  directly 
as  fertilizers  or  they  can  be  made  to  produce  ammonia  un- 
der suitable  treatment. 

The  most  important  of  these  nitride  pro- 
cesses  seems  to  be  that  of  Serpek,  who,  in  his 
experimental  factory  at  Niedermorschweiler, 
succeeded  in  obtaining  aluminum  nitride  in  almost  theo- 
retical quantities,  with  the  use  of  an  amount  of  electrical 
energy  eight  times  less  than  that  needed  for  the  Birkeland- 
Eyde  process  and  one-half  less  than  for  the  cyanamide 

17 


process,  the  results  being  calculated  for  equal  weights  of 
"fixed"  nitrogen. 

A  French  company  has  taken  up  the  commercial  appli- 
cation of  this  process  which  can  furnish,  besides  ammonia, 
pure  alumina  for  the  manufacture  of  aluminum  metal. 

An  exceptionally  ingenious  process  for  the 
process  direct  synthesis   of   ammonia,   by  the   direct 

union  of  hydrogen  with  nitrogen,  has  been  de- 
veloped by  Haber  in  conjunction  with  the  chemists  and 
engineers  of  the  Badische  Aniline  &  Soda  Fabrik. 

The  process  has  the  advantage  that  it  is  not,  like  the 
other  nitrogen-fixation  processes,  paramountly  dependent 
upon  cheap  power ;  for  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  it  seems 
to  be  destined  to  a  more  ready  application.  The  fact  that 
the  group  of  the  three  German  chemical  companies  which 
control  the  process  have  sold  out  their  former  holdings  in 
the  Norwegian  enterprises  to  a  Norwegian-French  group, 
and  are  now  devoting  their  energies  to  the  commercial  in- 
stallation of  the  Haber  process,  has  quite  some  significance 
as  to  expectations  for  the  future. 

The  question  naturally  arises :  Will  there  be 
o?nitrogen-     an  over-production  and  will  these  different  rival 
processes         processes  not  kill  each  other  in  slaughtering 
prices  beyond  remunerative  production? 

As  to  over-production,  we  should  bear  in  mind  that 
nitrogen  fertilizers  are  already  used  at  the  rate  of  about 
$200,000,000  worth  a  year,  and  that  any  decrease  in  price, 
and,  more  particularly,  better  education  in  farming,  will 
probably  lead  to  an  enormously  increased  consumption.  It 
is  worth  mentioning  here  that,  in  1825,  the  first  ship-load 
of  Chile  saltpeter  which  was  sent  to  Europe  could  find  no 
buyer,  and  was  finally  thrown  into  the  sea  as  useless  ma- 
terial. 

Then  again,  processes  for  nitric  acid  and  processes  for 
ammonia,  instead  of  interfering,  are  supplementary  to 

18 


each  other,  because  the  world  needs  ammonia  and  am- 
monium salts,  as  well  as  nitric  acid  or  nitrates. 

It  should  be  pointed  out  also,  that,  ultimately,  the  pro- 
duction of  ammonium  nitrate  may  prove  the  most  desirable 
method  so  as  to  minimize  freight;  for  this  salt  contains 
much  more  nitrogen  to  the  ton  than  is  the  case  with  the 
more  bulky  calcium-salt  under  which  form  synthetic 
nitrates  are  now  put  into  the  market. 

Before  leaving  this  subject,  let  us  examine 
Bradley  and  wny  Bradley  and  Love  joy's  efforts  came  to  a 
suJceee°d?n0t  standstill  where  others  succeeded. 

First  of  all,  the  cost  of  power  at  Niagara 
Falls  is  three  to  five  times  higher  than  in  Norway,  and  al- 
though at  the  time  this  was  not  strictly  prohibitive  for  the 
manufacture  of  nitric  acid,  it  was  entirely  beyond  hope  for 
the  production  of  fertilizers.  The  relatively  high  cost  of 
power  in  our  country  is  the  reason  why  the  cyanamide  en- 
terprise had  to  locate  on  the  Canadian  side  of  Niagara 
Falls,  and  why,  up  till  now,  outside  of  an  experimental 
plant  in  the  South  (a  4000  horse-power  installation  in 
North  Carolina,  using  the  Pauling  process),  the  whole 
United  States  has  not  a  single  synthetic  nitrogen  fertilizer 
works. 

The  yields  of  the  Bradley-Love  joy  apparatus  were 
rather  good.  They  succeeded  in  converting  as  much  as 
2^/2%  °f  the  air,  which  is  somewhat  better  than  their  suc- 
cessors are  able  to  accomplish. 

But  their  units,  12  kilowatts,  were  very  much  smaller 
than  the  1000  to  3000  kilowatts  now  used  in  Norway;  they 
were  also  more  delicate  to  handle,  all  of  which  made  instal- 
lation and  operation  considerably  more  expensive. 

However,  this  was  the  natural  phase  through  which  any 
pioneer  industrial  development  has  to  go,  and  it  is  more 
than  probable  that  in  the  natural  order  of  events,  these 
imperfections  would  have  been  eliminated. 

19 


But  the  killing  stroke  came  when  financial  support  was 
suddenly  withdrawn. 

In  the  successful  solution  of  similar  indus- 
Necessity  of  trial  problems,  the  originators  in  Europe  were 
team-work  not  only  backed  by  scientifically  well-advised 
financial1  bankers,  but  they  were  helped  to  the  rapid 
backing  solution  of  all  the  side  problems  by  a  group  of 

specially  selected  scientific  collaborators,  as 
well  as  by  all  the  resourcefulness  of  well-established  chem- 
ical enterprises. 

That  such  conditions  are  possible  in  the  United  States 
has  been  demonstrated  by  the  splendid  team-work  which 
led  to  the  development  of  the  modern  Tungsten  lamp  in  the 
research  laboratories  of  the  General  Electric  Company, 
and  to  the  development  of  the  Tesla  polyphase  motor  by 
the  group  of  engineers  of  the  Westinghouse  Company. 

True,  there  are  endless  subjects  of  research  and  develop- 
ment which  can  be  brought  to  success  by  the  efforts  of  sin- 
gle independent  inventors,  but  there  are  some  problems  of 
applied  science  which  are  so  vast,  so  much  surrounded  with 
ramifying  difficulties,  that  no  one  man,  nor  two  men,  how- 
ever exceptional,  can  either  furnish  the  brains  or  the 
money  necessary  for  leading  to  success  within  a  reasonable 
time.  For  such  special  problems,  the  rapid  cooperation  of 
numerous  experts  and  the  financial  resources  of  large 
establishments  are  indispensable. 

All    these    examples    of    the    struggle    for 

cents™  an<       efficiency  and  improvement  demonstrate  why, 

Criterion  of       jn  industrial  chemistry,  the  question  of  dollars 

and  cents  has  to  be  taken  very  much  into 

consideration. 

From  this  standpoint  at  least,  the  "Dollars  and  cents" 
argument  can  be  interpreted  as  a  symptom  of  industrial 
efficiency,  and  thus,  the  definition  sounds  no  longer  as  a 
reproach.  With  some  allowable  degree  of  accuracy,  it  f or- 

20 


mulates  one  of  the  economic  aspects  of  any  acceptable  in- 
dustrial chemical  process. 

Indeed,  barring  special  conditions,  as,  for  instance,  in- 
competent or  reckless  management,  unfair  competition, 
monopolies,  or  other  artificial  privileges,  the  money  success 
of  a  chemical  process  is  the  cash  plebiscite  of  approval  of 
the  consumers.  It  is  bound,  after  a  time  at  least,  to  weed 
out  the  inefficient  methods. 

Some  chemists,  who  have  little  or  no  experi- 
influence  of      ence  with  industrial  enterprises,  are  too  much 

secondary  .  .  / 

factors  in  over-inclined  to  judge  a  chemical  process  ex- 
prooesses  clusively  from  the  standpoint  of  the  chemical 
reactions  involved  therein,  without  sufficient 
regard  to  engineering  difficulties,  financial  requirements, 
labor  problems,  market  and  trade  conditions,  rapid  devel- 
opment of  the  art  involving  frequent  disturbing  improve- 
ments in  methods  and  expensive  changes  in  equipment, 
advantages  or  disadvantages  of  the  location  of  the  plant, 
and  other  conditions  so  numerous  and  variable  that  many 
of  them  can  hardly  be  foreseen  even  by  men  of  experience. 
And  yet,  these  seemingly  secondary  considerations  most 
of  the  time  become  the  deciding  factor  of  success  or  failure 
of  an  otherwise  well-conceived  chemical  process. 

The  cost  of  transportation  alone  will  fre- 
°f  quently  decide  whether  a  certain  chemical  pro- 
cess is  economically  possible  or  not.  For  in- 
stance, the  big  Washoe  Smelter,  in  Montana,  wastes  enough 
sulphurdioxide-gas  to  make  daily  1800  tons  of  sulphuric 
acid,  but  that  smelter  is  too  far  distant  from  any  possible 
market  for  such  a  quantity  of  otherwise  valuable  material. 

Another  example  of  the  kind  is  found  in  the 

Natural 

deposits  of       natural  deposits  of  soda,  or  soda  lakes,  in  Cali- 
fornia.   One  of  these  soda  lakes  contains  from 
thirty  to  forty-two  million  tons  of  soda.    Here  is  a  natural 
source  of  supply  which  would  be  ample  to  satisfy  the 

21 


world's  demand  for  many  years  to  come.  Similar  deposits 
exist  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  but  the  cost  of  transporta- 
tion to  a  sufficiently  large  and  profitable  market  is  so  exor- 
bitant that,  in  the  meantime,  it  is  cheaper  to  erect  at  more 
convenient  points  expensive  chemical  works  in  which  soda 
is  made  chemically  and  from  where  the  market  can  be  sup- 
plied more  profitably. 

In  addition,  we  can  cite  the  artificial  nitrate  processes  in 
Norway,  which,  notwithstanding  their  low  efficiency  and 
expensive  installation,  can  furnish  nitrate  in  competition 
with  the  natural  nitrate  beds  of  Chile,  because  the  latter  are 
hampered  by  the  cost  of  extraction  from  the  soil  where  fuel 
for  crystallization  is  expensive,  in  addition  to  the  consider- 
able cost  of  freight. 

But  there  is  no  better  example,  illustrating 
tne  far-reaching  effect  of  seemingly  secondary 
conditions  upon  the  success  of  a  chemical  pro- 
cess, than  the  history  of  the  Leblanc  soda  process. 

This  famous  process  was  the  forerunner  of  chemical  in- 
dustry: for  almost  a  century,  it  dominated  the  enormous 
group  of  industries  of  heavy  chemicals,  so  expressively 
called  by  the  French:  "La  Grande  Industrie  Chimique," 
and  now  we  are  witnesses  of  the  lingering  death  agonies  of 
this  chemical  colossus.  Through  the  Leblanc  process,  large 
fortunes  have  been  made  and  lost ;  but  even  after  its  death,  it 
will  leave  a  treasure  of  information  to  science  and  chemical 
engineering,  the  value  of  which  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 

Here,  then,  is  a  very  well  worked-out  process,  admirably 
studied  in  all  its  details,  which,  in  its  heroic  struggle  for 
existence,  has  drawn  upon  every  conceivable  resource  of 
ingenuity  furnished  by  the  most  learned  chemists  and  the 
most  skilful  engineers,  who  succeeded  in  bringing  it  to  an 
extraordinary  degree  of  perfection,  and  which,  neverthe- 
less, has  to  succumb  before  inexorable,  although  seemingly 
secondary,  conditions. 

22 


Strange  to  say,  its  competitor,  the  Solvay  process,  en- 
tered into  the  arena  after  a  succession  of  failures.  When 
Solvay,  as  a  young  man,  took  up  this  process, 
he  was»  himself,  totally  ignorant  of  the  fact 
that  no  less  than  about  a  dozen  able  chemists 
had  invented  and  reinvented  the  very  reaction  on  which  he 
had  pinned  his  faith;  that,  furthermore,  some  had  tried  it  on 
a  commercial  scale,  and  had,  in  every  instance,  encountered 
failure.  At  that  time,  all  this  must,  undoubtedly,  have 
been  to  young  Solvay  a  revelation  sufficient  to  dishearten 
almost  anybody.  But  he  had  one  predominant  thought  to 
which  he  clung  as  a  last  hope  of  success,  and  which  would 
probably  have  escaped  most  chemists ;  he  reasoned  that,  in 
this  process,  he  starts  from  two  watery  solutions,  which, 
when  brought  together,  precipitate  a  dry  product,  bicar- 
bonate of  soda;  in  the  Leblanc  process,  the  raw  materials 
must  be  melted  together,  with  the  use  of  expensive  fuel, 
after  which  the  mass  is  dissolved  in  water,  losing  all  these 
valuable  heat  units,  while  more  heat  has  again  to  be  applied 
to  evaporate  to  dryness. 

After  all,  most  of  the  weakness  of  the  Le- 
Glnftti>  n°nf"  blanc  process  resides  in  the  greater  consump- 
fuei  in  tion  of  fuel.  But  the  cost  of  fuel,  here  again, 

process5  is  determined  by  freight  rates.    This  is  so  true 

that  we  find  that  the  last  few  Leblanc  works 
which  manage  to  keep  alive  are  exactly  those  which  are 
situated  near  unusually  favorable  shipping  points,  where 
they  can  obtain  cheap  fuel,  as  well  as  cheap  raw  materials, 
and  whence  they  can  most  advantageously  reach  certain 
profitable  markets. 

But  another  tremendous  handicap  of  the 
Hydrochloric  Leblanc  process  is  that  it  gives  as  one  of  its  by- 
products,  hydrochloric  acid.  Profitable  use  for 
this  acid,  as  such,  can  be  found  only  to  a  limited 
extent.  It  is  true  that  hydrochloric  acid  could  be  used  in 

23 


much  larger  quantities  for  many  purposes  where  sulphuric 
acid  is  used  now,  but  it  has,  against  sulphuric  acid,  a  great 
freight  disadvantage.  In  its  commercially  available  con- 
dition, it  is  an  aqueous  solution,  containing  only  about 
one-third  of  real  acid,  so  that  the  transportation  of  one  ton 
of  acid  practically  involves  the  extra  cost  of  freight  of 
about  two  tons  of  water.  Furthermore,  the  transportation 
of  hydrochloric  acid  in  anything  but  glass  carboys  involves 
very  difficult  problems  in  itself,  so  that  the  market  for 
hydrochloric  acid  remains  always  within  a  relatively  small 
zone  from  its  point  of  production.  However, 

Chloride  of         f or  a  while  at  jeast)  an  outlet  f Qr  this  hydro. 

chloric  acid  was  found  by  converting  it  into  a 
dry  material  which  can  easily  be  transported;  namely, 
chloride  of  lime  or  bleaching-powder. 

The  amount  of  bleaching-powder  consumed  in  the  world 
practically  dictated  the  limited  extent  to  which  the  Leblanc 

process  could  be  profitably  worked  in  competi- 
processes  a°  tion  with  the  Solvay  process.  But  even  this  out- 
petitorm~  let  nas  been  blocked  during  these  later  years 

by  the  advent  of  the  electrolytic  alkali  pro- 
cesses, which  have  sprung  up  successfully  in  several  coun- 
tries, and  which  give  as  a  cheap  by-product,  chlorine, 
which  is  directly  converted  into  chloride  of  lime. 

To-day,  any  process  which  involves  the  production  of 
large  quantities  of  hydrochloric  acid,  beyond  what  the  mar- 
ket can  absorb  as  such,  or  as  derivatives  thereof,  becomes  a 
positive  detriment,  and  foretells  failure  of  the  process. 
Even  if  we  could  afford  to  lose  all  the  acid,  the  disposal  of 
large  quantities  thereof  conflicts  immediately  with  laws 
and  ordinances  relative  to  the  pollution  of  the  atmosphere 
or  streams,  or  the  rights  of  neighbors,  and  occasions  expen- 

M  rk  t  f  r         S*VC  Damage  suits- 

chlorine  Whatever  is  said  about  hydrochloric  acid, 

applies  to  some  extent  to  chlorine,  produced  in 
24 


the  electrolytic  manufacture  of  caustic  soda.  Here  again, 
the  development  of  the  latter  industry  is  limited,  primarily, 
by  the  amount  of  chlorine  which  the  market,  as  such,  or  as 
chlorinated  products,  can  absorb. 

At  any  rate,  chlorine  can  be  produced  so  much  cheaper 
by  electrolytic  caustic  alkali  processes  than  formerly,  and 
in  the  meantime  the  market  price  of  chloride  of  lime  has 
already  been  cut  about  in  half. 

In  as  far  as  the  rather  young  electrolytic  alkali  industry 
has  taken  a  considerable  development  in  the  United  States, 
let  us  examine  it  somewhat  nearer : 

At  present,  the  world's  production  of  chlor- 
ductioif  <*f°~  ^e  °^  **me  aPProxmiates  about  half  a  million 

chloride  of          tons. 

million  tons          We  used  to  import  all  our  chloride  of  lime 

from  Europe,  until  about  fifteen  years  ago, 

when  the  first  successful  electrolytic  alkali  works  were 

started  at  Niagara  Falls.    That  ingenious  mercury  cell  of 

Hamilton  Y.  Castner — a  pupil  of  Professor 

Chandler  and  one  of  the  illustrious  sons  of  the 

Columbia  School  of  Mines — was  first  used,  and  his  process 

still  furnishes  a  large  part  of  all  the  electrolytic  caustic 

soda  and  chlorine  manufactured  here  and  abroad. 

At  present,  about  30,000  electrical  horse- 
power useefin  Power  are  employed  uninterruptedly  for  the 
the  United  different  processes  used  in  the  United  States, 

States  for  ** 

electrolytic       and  our  home  production  has  increased  to  the 
production        point  where,  instead  of  importing  chloride  of 
lime,  we  shall  soon  be  compelled  to  export  our 
surplus  production. 

It  looks  now  as  if,  for  the  moment  at  least, 

Nearness  of 

oyer-produc-     any  sudden  considerable  increase  in  the  pro- 
duction of  chloride  of  lime  would  lead  to  over- 
production until  new  channels  of  consumption  of  chloride 
of  lime  or  other  chlorine  products  can  be  found. 

25 


However,  new  uses  for  chlorine  are  being  found  every 
day.     The  very  fact  that  commercial  hydro- 
ine68  f0r    chloric  acid  of  exceptional  purity  is  now  being 
manufactured  in  Niagara  Falls  by  starting 
from  chlorine,  indicates  clearly  that  conditions  are  being 
reversed;  no  longer  than  a  few  years  ago,  when 

Hydrochloric  J       ,      . 

acid  from         chlorine    was    manufactured    exclusively    by 
means  of  hydrochloric  acid,  this  would  have 
sounded  like  a  paradox. 

The  consumption  of  chlorine  for  the  prepa- 
chiorine  ration  of  organic  chlorination  products  utilized 

in  the  dye-stuff  industry,  is  also  increasing 
continually,  and  its  use  for  the  manufacture  of  tetra- 
chloride  of  carbon  and  so-called  acetylen  chlorination 
products,  has  reached  quite  some  importance. 

There  is  probably  a  much  overlooked  but  wider  opening 
for  chlorinated  solvents  in  the  fact  that 
dfioride"  ethylen-gas  can  be  prepared  now  at  consider- 
ably lower  cost  than  acetylen,  and  that  ethylen- 
chloride,  or  the  old  known  "Dutch  Liquid,"  is  an  unusually 
good  solvent.  It  has,  furthermore,  the  great  advantage 
that  its  specific  gravity  is  not  too  high,  and  its  boiling 
point,  too,  is  about  the  right  temperature.  It  ought  to  be 
possible  to  make  it  at  such  a  low  price  that  it  would  find 
endless  applications  where  the  use  of  other  chlorination 
solvents  has  thus  far  been  impossible. 

The  chlorination  of  ores  for  certain  metallur- 
gical  processes  may  eventually  open  a  still 
larger  field  of  consumption  for  chlorine. 
In  the  meantime,  liquified  chlorine  gas,  obtained  by 
great  compression,  or  by  intense  refrigeration, 
increasing        j^  ^ecome  an  important  article  of  commerce, 
liquified          which  can  be  transported  in  strong  steel  cylin- 

cnlonne  t          .,.        .  . 

ders.  Its  main  utilization  resides  in  the  manu- 
facture of  tin  chloride  by  the  Goldschmidt  process  for 

26 


reclaiming  tin-scrap.    It  is  finding,  also,  increased  applica- 

Goidschmidt     ^ons  as  a  bleacmng  agent  and  for  the  purifica- 
process  for       tion  of  drinking  water,   as  well  as   for  the 
manufacture  of  various  chlorination  products. 

Its  great  handicap  for  rapid  introduction  is  again  the 
question  of  freight,  where  heavy  and  expensive  containers 
become  indispensable. 

In  most  cases,  the  transportation  problem  of  chlorine  is 
solved  more  economically  by  handling  it  as  chloride  of  lime, 
which,  after  all,  represents  chlorine  or  oxygen  in  solid  form, 
easily  transportable. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  freight  difficulty 
problem  in  could  easily  be  eliminated  by  producing  the 
chlorine  t0  chlorine  right  at  the  spot  of  consumption.  But 
this  is  not  always  so  simple  as  it  may  appear. 
To  begin  with,  the  cost  of  an  efficient  plant  for  any  elec- 
trolytic operation  is  always  unusually  high  as  compared  to 
other  chemical  equipments.  Then,  also,  small  electrolytic 
alkali  plants  are  not  profitable  to  operate.  Furthermore, 
the  conditions  for  producing  cheap  chlorine  depend  on 
many  different  factors,  which  all  have  to  coordinate  advan- 
tageously; for  instance,  cheap  power,  cheap  fuel,  and 
cheap  raw  materials  are  essential,  while,  at  the  same  time,  a 
profitable  outlet  must  be  found  for  the  caustic  soda. 

Lately,  there  has  been  a  considerable  reduction  of  the 
market  price  of  caustic  soda;  all  this  may  have  for  effect 
that  the  less  efficient  electrolytic  processes  will  gradually 
be  eliminated;  although  this  may  not  necessarily  be 
the  case  for  smaller  plants  which  do  not  compete  in  the 
open  market,  but  consume  their  own  output  for  some 
special  purpose. 

Advantages  Several  distinct  types  of  electrolytic  cells  are 
vantages^  now  m  successful  use,  but  experience  seems  to 
of eTeTtro^ytic8  demonstrate  that  the  so-called  diaphragm  cells 
alkali  ceils  are  cheapest  to  construct  and  to  operate,  pro- 

27 


vided,  however,  no  exception  be  taken  to  the  fact  that  the 
caustic  soda  obtained  from  diaphragm  cells  always  con- 
tains some  sodium  chloride,  usually  varying  from  2  to  3%, 
which  it  is  not  practical  to  eliminate,  but  which,  for  almost 
all  purposes,  does  not  interfere  in  the  least  with  its  commer- 
cial use. 

Mercury  cells  give  a  much  purer  caustic  soda,  and  this 
may,  in  some  cases,  compensate  for  their  more  expensive 
equipment  and  operation.  Moreover,  there  are  some  pur- 
poses where  the  initial  caustic  solution  of  rather  high  con- 
centration, produced  directly  in  these  cells,  can  be  used  as  it 
is  without  further  treatment,  thus  obviating  further  con- 
centration and  cost  of  fuel. 

The  expenses  for  evaporation  and  elimination  of  salt 
from  the  raw  caustic  solutions  increase  to  an  exaggerated 
extent  with  some  types  of  diaphragm  cells,  which  produce 
only  very  weak  caustic  liquors.  This  is  also  the  case  with 
the  so-called  "gravity  cell,"  sometimes  called  the  "bell 
type,"  or  "Aussig  type,"  of  cell.  But  these  gravity  cells 
have  the  merit  of  dispensing  with  the  delicate  and  expen- 
sive problem  of  diaphragms.  On  the  other  hand,  their 
units  are  very  small,  and,  on  this  account,  they  necessitate  a 
rather  complicated  installation,  occupying  an  unusually 
large  floor  space  and  expensive  buildings. 

The  general  tendency  is  now  toward  cells  which  can  be 
used  in  very  large  units,  which  can  be  housed  economically, 
and  of  which  the  general  cost  of  maintenance  and  renewal 
is  small;  some  of  the  modern  types  of  diaphragm  cells  are 
now  successfully  operating  with  3000  to  5000  amperes  per 
cell. 

As  to  the  possible  future  improvements  in  electrolytic 
alkali  cells,  we  should  mention  that  in  some  types  the  cur- 
rent efficiencies  have  practically  reached  their  maximum, 
and  average  ampere  efficiencies  as  high  as  95  to  97% 
have  been  obtained  in  continuous  practice.  The  main  diffi- 

28 


culty  is  to  reinforce  these  favorable  results  by  the  use  of 
lower  voltage,  without  making  the  units  unnecessarily 
bulky,  or  expensive  in  construction,  or  in  maintenance,  all 
factors  which  soon  outweigh  any  intended  saving  of  electric 
current. 

Here,  more  than  in  any  other  branch  of  chemical  en- 
gineering, it  is  easy  enough  to  determine  how  "good"  a  cell 
is  on  a  limited  trial,  but  it  takes  expensive,  long  continuous 
use  on  a  full  commercial  scale,  running  uninterruptedly 
day  and  night  for  years,  to  find  out  how  "bad"  it  is  for 
real  commercial  practice. 

In  relation  to  the  electrolytic  alkali  industry, 

Cheap  power  .  •  * 

not  the  only  a  great  mistake  is  frequently  committed  by  con- 
sidering the  question  of  power  as  paramount; 
true  enough,  cheap  power  is  very  important,  almost  essen- 
tial, but  certainly  it  is  not  everything.  There  have  been 
cases  where  it  was  found  much  cheaper  in  the  end  to  pay 
almost  double  for  electric  current  in  a  certain  locality, 
than  in  another  site  not  far  distant  from  the  first,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  the  cheaper  power  supply  was  ham- 
pered by  frequent  interruptions  and  expensive  disturb- 
ances, which  more  than  offset  any  possible  saving  in  cost 
of  power. 

In  further  corroboration,  it  is  well  known  that  some  of 
the  most  successful  electrolytic  soda  manufacturers  have 
found  it  to  their  advantage  to  sacrifice  power  by  running 
their  cells  at  decidedly  higher  voltage  than  is  strictly  nec- 
essary— which  simply  means  consuming  more  power — and 
this  in  order  to  be  able  to  use  higher  current  densities, 
thereby  increasing  considerably  the  output  of  the  same  size 
units,  and  thus  economizing  on  the  general  cost  of  plant 
operation.  Here  is  one  of  the  ever  recurring  instances  in 
chemical  manufacturing  where  it  becomes  more  advan- 
tageous to  sacrifice  apparent  theoretical  efficiency  in  favor 
of  industrial  expediency. 

29 


All  this  does  not  diminish  the  fact  that  the  larger  electro- 
chemical industries  can  only  thrive  where  cheap  power  is 
importance  available. 

Modern  progress  of  electrical  engineering 


chemical  nas  ^ven  us  the  means  to  utilize  so-called 
processes  natural  powers;  until  now,  however,  we  have 
only  availed  ourselves  of  the  water-power  developed  from 
rivers,  lakes,  and  waterfalls.  As  far  as  larger  electric 
power  generation  is  concerned,  the  use  of  the  wind,  or  the 
tide,  or  the  heat  of  the  sun,  represents,  up  till  now,  nothing 
much  beyond  a  mere  hope  of  future  possibilities. 

In  the  meantime,  it  so  happens,  unfortunately,  that 
many  of  the  most  abundant  water-powers  of  the  world  are 
situated  in  places  of  difficult  access,  far  removed  from  the 
zone  of  possible  utilization. 

But,  precisely  on  this  account,  it-  would  ap- 
Cost  of  pear,  at  first  sight,  as  if  the  United  States,  with 

water-power  f 

in  the  United    some  of  her  big  water-powers  situated  nearer 
1        to  active  centers  of  consumption,  would  be  in 


an  exceptionally  favorable  condition  for  the 
development  of  electrochemical  industries.  On  closer  ex- 
amination, we  find,  however,  that  the  cost  of  water-power, 
as  sold  to  manufacturers,  is,  in  general,  much  higher  than 
might  be  expected  ;  at  any  rate,  it  is  considerably  more  ex- 
pensive than  the  cost  of  electric  power  utilized  in  the 
Norway  nitrate  enterprises. 

This  is  principally  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  United 
States,  water-power,  before  it  is  utilized  by  the  electrolytic 
manufacturer,  has  already  to  pay  one,  two,  and  sometimes 
three,  profits,  to  as  many  intermediate  interests,  which  act 
as  so  many  middlemen  between  the  original  water-power 
and  the  consumer.  Only  in  such  instances  as  in  Norway, 
where  the  electrochemical  enterprise  and  the  development 
of  the  water-power  are  practically  in  the  same  hands,  can 
electric  current  be  calculated  at  its  real  cheapest  cost. 

30 


Neither  should  the  fact  be  overlooked  that  the  best  of  our 
water-powers  in  the  East  are  situated  rather  far  inland. 
Although  this  does  not  matter  much  for  the  home  market, 
it  puts  us  at  a  decided  disadvantage  for  the  exportation  of 
manufactured  goods,  in  comparison  again  with  Norway, 
where  the  electrolytic  plants  are  situated  quite  close  to  a 
good  sea-harbor  open  in  all  seasons. 

Some  electrochemical  enterprises  require 
us?ofSwfste  cheap  fuel  just  as  much  as  cheap  power;  and, 
ducerngdasPr°~  on  ^s  account,  it  has  proved  sometimes  more 
advantageous  to  dispense  entirely  with  water- 
power  by  generating  gas  for  fuel  as  well  as  for  power 
from  cheap  coal  or  still  cheaper  peat. 

At  present,  most  of  our  ways  of  using  coal  are  still  cum- 
bersome and  wasteful,  although  several  efficient  methods 
have  been  developed  which  some  day  will  probably  be  used 
almost  exclusively,  principally  in  such  places  where  lower 
grades  of  cheap  coal  are  obtainable. 

I  refer  here  particularly  to  the  valuable 

Mond-gas 

pioneer  work  of  that  great  industrial  chemist, 
Mond,  on  cheap  water-gas  production,  by  the  use  of  a  lim- 
ited amount  of  air  in  conjunction  with  water  vapor. 

More  recently,  this  process  has  been  extended  by  Caro, 
Frank  and  others,  to  the  direct  conversion  of  undried  peat 
into  fuel-gas. 

By  the  use  of  these  processes,  peat  or  lower  grades  of 
coal,  totally  unsuitable  for  other  purposes,  containing,  in 
some  instances,  as  much  as  60  to  70%  of  incombustible 
constituents,  can  be  used  to  good  advantage  in  the  produc- 
tion of  fuel  for  power  generation. 

Whether  Mond-gas  will  ever  be  found  advantageous  for 
distribution  to  long  distances  is  questionable,  because  its 
heating  value  per  cubic  foot  is  rather  less  than  that  of  ordi- 
nary water-gas,  but  this  does  not  interfere  with  its  efficient 
use  in  internal  combustion  engines. 

31 


In  general,  our  methods  for  producing  or  utilizing  gas  in 
our  cities  do  scant  justice  to  the  extended  opportunities 
indicated  by  our  newer  knowledge. 

Good  fuel-gas  could  be  manufactured  and 
Antiquated       distributed  to  the  individual  household  con- 

municipal 

specifications    sumer  at  considerably  cheaper  rates,  if  it  were 
testing  not   for   antiquated  municipal   specifications, 

which  keep  on  prescribing  photometric  tests  in- 
stead of  insisting  on  standards  of  fuel  value,  which  makes 
the  cost  of  production  unnecessarily  high,  and  disregards 
the  fact  that,  for  lighting,  the  Welsbach  mantle  has  ren- 
dered obsolete  the  use  of  highly  carbureted  gas 
Great  eco-  as  a  kare  flame.  But  for  those  unfortunate 

nomic  possi- 

biiities  of        specifications,  cheap  fuel-gas  might  be  pro- 
cheap  fuel-      /     ,  *  i        •  j 
gas                 duced   at  some   advantageous   central   point, 

where  very  cheap  coal  is  available ;  such  heating 
gas  could  be  distributed  to  every  house  and  every  factory, 
where  it  could  be  used  cleanly  and  advantageously,  like 
natural  gas,  doing  away  at  once  with  the  black  coal  smoke 
nuisance,  which  now  practically  compels  a  city  like  New 
York  to  use  nothing  but  the  more  expensive  grades  of 
anthracite  coal.  It  would  eliminate,  at  the  same  time,  all 
the  bother  and  expense  caused  through  the  clumsy  and  ex- 
pensive methods  of  transportation  and  handling  of  coal  and 
ashes;  it  would  relieve  us  from  many  unnecessary  middle- 
men which  now  exist  between  coal  and  its  final  consumer. 

The  newer  large-sized  internal  combustion 
JenTefs°Toer  engines  are  introducing  increasing  opportuni- 
^es  ^ or  new  centers  °f  power  production  where 
waste  gas  of  blast-furnaces  or  coke-ovens,  or 
where  deposits  of  inferior  coal  or  peat,  are  available. 

If  such  centers  are  situated  near  tidewater,  this  may  ren- 
der them  still  more  advantageous  for  some  electrochemical 
industries,  which,  until  now,  were  compelled  to  locate  near 
some  inland  water-powers. 

32 


Nor  should  we  overlook  the  fact  that  the  newer  methods 
for  the  production  of  cheap  fuel-gas  offer  excellent  oppor- 
tunities for  an  increased  production  of  valuable 
production  of  tar  by-products,  and  more  particularly  of 
oth£°bya- and  ammonium  salts ;  the  latter  would  help  to  a  not 
products  from  inconsiderable  extent  in  furnishing  more  ni- 

gaS  f      4--T 

trogen  fertilizer. 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  a  greater  effort  has  al- 
ready been  made  to  start  the  industrial  synthesis  of 
nitrogen  products  than  to  economize  all  these  hitherto 
wasted  sources  of  ammonia. 

In  fact,  science  indicates  still  other  ways, 
somewhat  of  a  more  radical  nature,  for  correct- 
adricuiture       m&  ^e  nitrogen  deficiencies  in  relation  to  our 

food  supply. 

Indeed,  if  we  will  look  at  this  matter  from  a  much 
broader  standpoint,  we  may  find  that,  after  all,  the  short- 
age of  nitrogen  in  the  world  is  attributable,  to  a  large 
extent,  to  our  rather  one-sided  system  of  agriculture.  We 
do  not  sufficiently  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  certain 
plants,  for  instance  those  of  the  group  of  Leguminosae,  have 
the  valuable  property  of  easily  assimilating  nitrogen  from 
the  air,  without  the  necessity  of  nitrogen  fertilizers.  In  this 
way,  the  culture  of  certain  Leguminosae  can  insure  enough 
nitrogen  for  the  soil,  so  that,  in  rotation  with  nitrogen  con- 
suming crops,  like  wheat,  we  could  dispense  with  the  neces- 
sity of  supplying  any  artificial  nitrogen  fertilizers. 

The  present  nitrogen  deficiency  is  influenced 
further  by  two  other  causes : 
manngcattie  The  first  cause  is  our  unnecessarily  exag- 
gerated meat  diet,  in  which  we  try  to  find  our 
proteid  requirements,  and  which  compels  us  to  raise  so 
many  cattle,  while  the  amount  of  land  which  feeds  one  head 
of  cattle  could  furnish,  if  properly  cultivated,  abundant 
vegetable  food  for  a  family  of  five. 

33 


The  second  cause  is  our  insufficient  knowledge  of  the 
way  to  grow  and  prepare  for  human  food  just  those  vege- 
tables which  are  richest  in  proteids.     Unfor- 
beanSOy~         tunately,    it    so    happens    that   exactly    such 
plants  as,  for  instance,  the_soy-bean  are  not 
by  any  means  easily  rendered  palatable  and  digestible; 
while  any  savage  can  eat  raw  meat,  or  can  readily  cook,  boil 
or  roast  it  for  consumption. 

On  this  subject,  we  can  learn  much  from  some  Eastern 
people,  like  the  Japanese,  who  have  become  experts  in  the 
art  of  preparing  a  variety  of  agreeable  food  products  from 
that  refractory  soy-bean,  which  contains  such  an  astonish- 
ingly large  amount  of  nutritious  proteids,  and  which,  long 
ago,  became  for  Japan  a  wholesome,  staple  article  of  diet. 
But,  on  this  subject,  the  Western  races  have  not  yet 
progressed  much  beyond  the  point  of  preparing  cattle-feed 
and  paint  oil  from  the  soy-bean,  although  the  more  ex- 
tended culture  of  this,  or  similar  plants,  might  work  about 
a  revolution  in  our  agricultural  economics. 

Agriculture,  after  all,  is  nothing  but  a  very 
a  branch^?  important  branch  of  industrial  chemistry,  al- 
chemtetiy  though  most  people  seem  to  ignore  the  fact 
that  the  whole  prosperity  of  agriculture  is 
based  on  the  success  of  that  photochemical  reaction  which, 
under  the  influence  of  the  light  of  the  sun,  causes  the  car- 
bon dioxide  of  the  air  to  be  assimilated  by  the  chlorophyl  of 
the  plant. 

p    ibiiiti  "^  *s  no*  imPoss^le  that  photochemistry, 

of  photo-  which  hitherto  has  busied  itself,  almost  ex- 
clusively, within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  art  of 
making  photographic  images,  will,  some  day,  attain  a  de- 
velopment of  usefulness  at  least  as  important  as  all  other 
branches  of  physical  chemistry.  In  this  broader  sense, 
photochemistry  seems  an  inviting  subject  for  the  agricul- 
tural chemist.  The  possible  rewards  in  store  in  this  almost 

34 


virgin  field  may,  in  their  turn,  by  that  effect  of  superinduc- 
tion  between  industry  and  science,  bring  about  a  rapid 
development  similar  to  what  we  have  witnessed  in  the  ad- 
vancement of  electricity,  as  well  as  chemistry,  which  both 
began  to  progress  by  bounds  and  leaps,  way  ahead  of  other 
sciences,  as  soon  as  their  growing  industrial  applications 
put  a  high  premium  on  further  research. 

Photochemistry  may  allow  us  some  day  to  obtain  chem- 
ical effects  hitherto  undreamed  of.  In  general,  the  action  of 
light  in  chemical  reactions  seems  incomparably  less  brutal 
than  all  means  used  heretofore  in  chemistry.  This  is  the 
probable  secret  of  the  subtle  chemical  syntheses  which 
happen  in  plant  life.  To  try  to  duplicate  these  delicate 
reactions  of  nature  by  our  present  methods  of  high  tem- 
peratures, electrolysis,  strong^  chemicals  and  other  similar 
torture-processes,  seems'  like  trying  to  imitate  a  master- 
piece of  Gounod  by  exploding  a  dynamite  cartridge  be- 
tween the  strings  of  a  piano.* 

tnere  are  endless  other  directions  for 


Some  rob- 

lems  for  the     scientific  research,  relating  to  industrial  appli- 

cations, which,  until  now,  do  not  seem  to  have 
received  sufficient  attention. 

For  instance,  from  a  chemical  standpoint,  the  richest 
chemical  enterprise  of  the  United  States,  the 
Petr°leum  industry,  has  hitherto  chiefly  busied 


veiopment  of     itself  with  a  rather  primitive  treatment  of  this 
industry0  e       valuable  raw  material,  and  little  or  no  attention 

has  been  paid  to  any  methods  for  transforming 
at  least  a  part  of  these  hydrocarbons  into  more  ennobled 
products  of  commerce  than  mere  fuel  or  illuminants. 

A  hint  as  to  the  enormous  possibilities  which 
nSber*10        may  ^e  m  store  m  ^at  direction,  is  suggested 

by  the  recent  work  in  Germany  and  England 
on  synthetic  rubber;  the  only  factor  which  prevents  extend- 
ing the  laboratory  synthesis  of  rubber  into  an  immense 

35 


industrial  undertaking,  is  that  we  have  not  yet  learned  how 
to  make  cheaply  the  isoprene  or  other  similar  non-saturated 
hydrocarbons  which  are  the  starting  point  in  the  process  which 
changes  their  molecules,  by  polymerization,  into  rubber. 

Nor  has  our  science  begun  to  find  the  best 
and"  t°arch  uses  ^  or  suc^  inexpensive  and  never  exhaustible 

vegetable  products  as  cellulose  or  starch. 
Quite  true,  several  important  manufactures,  like  that  of 
paper,  nitrocellulose,  glucose,  alcohol,  vinegar  and  some 
others,  have  been  built  on  it  ;  but  to  the  chemist  at  least,  it 
seems  as  if  a  much  greater  development  is  possible  in  the 
cheaper  and  more  extended  production  of  artificial  fiber. 
Although  we  have  succeeded  in  making  so-called  artificial 
silk,  this  article  is  still  very  expensive;  furthermore,  we 
have  not  yet  produced  a  cheap,  good,  artificial  fiber  of  the 
quality  of  wool. 

If  we  have  made  ourselves  independent  of 
production  of  Chile  for  our  nitrogen  supply,  we  are  still 
potash-salts  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  the  Stassfurt  mines 

in  Germany  for  our  requirements  of  soluble 
potash-salts,  which  are  just  as  necessary  for  agriculture. 
Shall  we  succeed  in  utilizing  some  of  the  proposed  methods 
for  converting  that  abundant  supply  of  feldspar,  or  other 
insoluble  potash-bearing  rocks,  into  soluble  potash-salts  by 
combining  the  expensive  heat  treatment  with  the  produc- 
tion of  another  material  like  cement,  which  would  render 
the  cost  of  fuel  less  exorbitant?  Or  shall  the  problem  be 
solved  in  setting  free  soluble  potassium  salts  as  a  by-prod- 
uct in  a  reaction  engendering  other  staple  products  con- 
sumed in  large  quantities? 

We  have  several  astonishingly  conflicting 
?eTatfvne°tonCe  theories  about  the  constitution  of  the  center  of 


constitution      ftie  globe,  but  we  have  not  yet  developed  the 

of  the  globe  *;  r 

means  to  penetrate  the  world  s  crust  beyond 
some  deep  mines  —  merely  an  imperceptible  faint  scratch  on 

36 


the  surface— and  in  the  meantime,  we  keep  on  guessing, 
while  to-day  astronomers  know  already  more  about  the  sur- 
face of  the  planet  Mars  than  we  know  about  the  interior  of 
the  globe  on  which  we  live. 

Nor  have  we  learned  to  develop  or  utilize  the 

Intense  * 

pressures         tremendous  pressures  under  which  most  min- 
erals have  been  formed,  and  still  less  do  we 
possess  the  means  to  try  these  pressures,  in  conjunction 
with  intensely  high  temperatures. 

No  end  of  work  is  in  store  for  the  research  chemist,  as 

well  as  for  the  chemical  engineer,  who  can  think  by  himself, 

without  always  following  the  beaten  track.    We  are  only 

at  the  beginning  of  our  successes,  and  yet, 

A  retrospect  fi    u     i    *  lAuu 

when  we  stop  to  look  back  to  see  what  has  been 
accomplished  during  the  last  generations,  that  big  jump 
from  the  rule-of -thumb  to  applied  science  is  nothing  short 
of  marvelous. 

Whoever  is  acquainted  with  the  condition  of 
of  ene7ati°n  ^uman  thought  to-day  must  find  it  strange, 
ignored  after  all,  that  scarcely  seventy  years  ago, 

seventy  years     -.  r  • ,  i      -i      •  • 

ago  Mayer  met  with  derision  even  amongst  the 

scientists  of  the  time,  when  he  announced  to 

the  world  that  simple  but  fundamental  principle  of  the 

conservation  of  energy. 

We    can   hardly   conceive   that   just    about   the   time 
the  Columbia  School  of  Mines  was  founded, 

Pasteur's         Liebig  was  still  ridiculing  Pasteur's  ideas  on 

ideas  on  fer-  & 

mentation  the  intervention  of  micro-organisms  in  f  ermen- 
Liebig6  tation,  which  have  proved  so  fecund  in  the  most 

epoch-making  applications  in  science,  medi- 
cine, surgery  and  sanitation,  as  well  as  in  many  industries. 
'      Fortunately,   true   science,   contrary  to   other   human 
s  i  n  avocations,  recognizes  nobody  as  an  "author- 

admits  no        ity,"  and  is  willing  to  change  her  beliefs  as 

"authorities"         i  ,  °,.    ,    «  ,    .,      .,. 

often  as  better  studied  facts  warrant  it;  this 
37 


difference  has  been  the  most  vital  cause  of  her  never  ceas- 
ing progress.  x 

To  the  younger  generation,  surrounded  with  research 
laboratories  everywhere,  it  may  cause  astonish- 
ment  to  learn  that  scarcely  fifty  years  ago, 
facilities17  that  great  benefactor  of  humanity,  Pasteur, 
was  still  repeating  his  pathetic  pleadings  with 
the  French  government  to  give  him  more  suitable  quarters 
than  a  damp,  poorly  lighted  basement,  in  which  he  was 
compelled  to  carry  on  his  research ;  and  this  was,  then,  the 
condition  of  affairs  of  no  less  a  place  than  Paris,  the  same 
Paris  that  was  spending,  just  at  that  time,  endless  millions 
for  the  building  of  her  new  Opera-Palace. 

Such,  facts  should  not  be  overlooked  by  those 
America's         who  might  think  that  America  has  been  too 
melt  ofVel°P~   slow  in  fostering  chemical  research, 
chemical  jf  the  United  States  has  not  participated  as 

industry  ,r    . 

early  as  some  European  countries  in  the  devel- 
opment of  industrial  chemistry,  this  was  chiefly  because 
conditions  here  were  so  totally  different  from  those  of 
nations  like  Germany,  England  and  France,  that  they  did 
not  warrant  any  such  premature  efforts. 

In  a  country  as  full  of  primary  resources,  agriculture, 
forests,  mines  and  the  more  elementary  industries  directly 
connected  therewith,  as  well  as  the  problems  of  transporta- 
tion, appealed  more  urgently  to  American  intellectual  men 
of  enterprise. 

Why  should  anybody  here  have  tried  to  introduce  new 
difficult  or  risky  chemical  industries,  when  on  every  side 
more  urgently  important  fields  of  enterprise  were  inviting 
all  men  of  initiative? 

Chemical  industries  develop  along  the  lines  furnished  by 
the  most  immediate  needs  of  a  country.  Our  sulphuric  acid 
industry,  which  can  boast  to-day  of  a  yearly  production 
of  about  three  million  tons,  had  to  begin  in  an  exceedingly 

38 


humble  way,  and  the  first  small  amounts  of  sulphuric  acid 
manufactured  here  found  a  very  scant  outlet. 

It  required  the  growth  of  such  fields  of  application  as 
petroleum  refining,  superphosphates,  explosives  and 
others,  before  the  sulphuric  acid  industry  could  grow  to 
what  it  is  to-day^^ 

At  present,  similar  influences  are  still  domi- 
fmPoits  be d  natin^  our  chemical  industries ;  they  are  gener- 
tween  the  ally  directed  to  the  mass  production  of  partly 

United  States  „  ,          . .  ,  ±1.  .  / 

and  Germany  manufactured  articles.  This  allows  us  to 
export,  at  present,  to  Germany,  chemicals  in 
crude  form,  but  in  greater  value  than  the  total  sum  of  all 
the  chemical  products  we  are  importing  from  her;  although 
it  can  not  be  denied  that  a  considerable  part  of  our  imports 
are  products  like  alizarine,  indigo,  aniline  dyes  and  similar 
synthetic  products  which  require  higher  chemical  manu- 
facturing skill. 

In  this  connection,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  our  exports 
of  oleomargarine,  to  Germany  alone,  are  about  equivalent 
to  our  imports  of  aniline  dyes. 

But  all  this  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  in 
Some  chem-  several  important  chemical  industries  the 

ical  industries  . 

in  which  the  United  States  has  been  a  pioneer.  Such  flour- 
United  States  .  ,  .  .  ,1  i?  ,1  ,  -n  •  i  i 
was  pioneer  ishing  enterprises  as  that  of  the  artificial  abra- 
sives, carborundum  and  alundum,  calcium 
carbide,  aluminum  and  many  others,  testify  how  soon  we 
have  learned  to  avail  ourselves  of  some  of  our  water-power. 
One  of  the  most  important  chemical  industries  of  the 
world,  the  sulphite  cellulose  industry,  of  which  the  total 
annual  production  amounts  to  three  and  a  half  million  tons, 
was  originated  and  developed  by  a  chemist  in  Philadelphia, 
B.  C.  Tilgman.  But  its  further  development  was  stopped 
for  awhile  on  account  of  the  same  old  trouble,  lack  of  funds, 
after  $40,000  were  spent,  until  some  years  later,  it  was 
taken  up  again  in  Europe  and  reintroduced  in  the  United 

39 


States,  where  it  has  developed  to  an  annual  production  of 
over  a  million  tons. 

What  has  been  accomplished  in  America  in  chemical  en- 
terprises, and  what  is  going  on  now  in  industrial  research, 
has  been  brilliantly  set  forth  by  Mr.  Arthur  D.  Little.1 

Nor  at  any  time  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States  was  chemistry  neglected  in  this  coun- 


of  chemistry    try;  this  has  recently  been  brought  to  light  in 

in  the  United      ,  ,  J  .      .  ^     ® 

states  the  most  convincing  manner  by  Professor 

Edgar  F.  Smith  of  Philadelphia.2 

The  altruistic  fervor  of  that  little  group  of  earlier  Amer- 
ican chemists,  who,  in  1792,  founded  the  Chemical  Society 
of  Philadelphia  (probably  the  very  first  chemical  society  in 
the  world),  and  in  1811,  the  Columbia  Chemical  Society 
of  Philadelphia,  is  best  illustrated  by  an  extract  of  one  of 
the  addresses  read  at  their  meeting  in  1798: 

"The  only  true  basis  on  which  the  independence  of  our 
country  can  rest  are  agriculture  and  manufactures.  To 
the  promotion  of  these  nothing  tends  in  a  higher  degree 
than  chemistry.  It  is  this  science  which  teaches  man  how  to 
correct  the  bad  qualities  of  the  land  he  cultivates  by  a 
proper  application  of  the  various  species  of  manure,  and  it 
is  by  means  of  a  knowledge  of  this  science  that  he  is  enabled 
to  pursue  the  metals  through  the  various  forms  they  put 
on  in  the  earth,  separate  them  from  substances  which  ren- 
der them  useless,  and  at  length  manufacture  them  into 
the  various  forms  for  use  and  ornament  in  which  we  see 
them.  If  such  are  the  effects  of  chemistry,  how  much 
should  the  wish  for  its  promotion  be  excited  in  the  breast  of 
every  American  !  It  is  to  a  general  diffusion  of  knowledge 
of  this  science,  next  to  the  virtue  of  our  countrymen,  that 
we  are  to  look  for  the  firm  establishment  of  our  independ- 


1  Journal  of  Industrial  and  Engineering  Chemistry.  Vol.  5,  No.  10.  October,  1913. 

;d  bj 

40 


2  "Chemistry  in  America."  Published  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co.     New  York  and 
London,  1914. 


ence.    And  may  your  endeavors,  gentlemen,  in  this  cause, 
entitle  you  to  the  gratitude  of  your  fellow-citizens." 

This  early  scientific  spirit  has  been  kept  alive  through- 
out the  following  century  by  such  American  chemists  as 
Robert  Hare,  E.  N.  Horsford,  Wolcott  Gibbs,  Sterry 
Hunt,  Lawrence  Smith,  Carey  Lea,  Josiah  P.  Cooke, 
John  W.  Draper,  Willard  Gibbs  and  many  others  still 
living. 

Present  conditions  in  America  can  be  meas- 
aitions  of  *~     ured  by  the  fact  that  the  American  Chemical 


Society  alone  has  over  seven  thousand  mem- 
bers, and  the  Chemists'  Club  of  New  York  has 
more  than  a  thousand  members,  without  counting  the  more 
specialized  chemical  organizations,  equally  active,  like  the 
American  Institute  of  Chemical  Engineers,  the  American 
Electrochemical  Society  and  many  others. 
>    During  the  later  years,  chemical  research  is  going  on 
with  increasing  vigor,  more  specially  in  relation  to  chemical 
problems  presented  by  enterprises  which  at  first  sight  seem 
rather  remote  from  the  so-called  chemical  industry. 

But  the  most  striking  symptom  of  newer  times  is  that 

some  wealthy  men  of  America  are  rivaling 

America110      eac^  °ther  in  the  endowment  of  scientific  re- 

search on  a  scale  ne*ver  undertaken  before,  and 

that  the  scientific  departments  of  our  Government  are  en- 

larging their  scope  of  usefulness  at  a  rapid  rate. 

But  we  are  merely  at  the  threshold  of  that  new  era  where 
we  shall  learn  better  to  use  exact  knowledge  and  efficiency 
to  bring  greater  happiness  and  broader  opportunities  to  all. 
However  imposing  may  appear  the  institutions  founded 
by  the  Nobels,  the  Solvays,  the  Monds,  the  Carnegies, 
the  Rockefellers  and  others,  each  of  them  is  only  a  puny 
effort  to  what  is  bound  to  come  when  governments  will 
do  their  full  share.  Fancy  that  if,  for  instance,  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute  is  spending  to  good  advantage  about 

41 


of Som*Cires7  ^^  a  m^^on  dollars  per  annum  for  medical 
ent  efforts  research,  the  chewing-gum  bill  of  the  United 
what  ought  States  alone  would  easily  support  half  a  dozen 
Rockefeller  Institutes ;  and  what  a  mere  insig- 
nificant little  trickle  all  these  research  funds  amount  to,  if 
we  have  the  courage  to  compare  them  to  that  powerful 
gushing  stream  of  money  which  yearly  drains  the  war 
budget  of  all  nations. 

In  the  meantime,  the  man  of  science  is  patient  and  con- 
tinues his  work  steadily,  if  somewhat  slowly,  with  the 
means  hitherto  at  his  disposal.  His  patience  is  inspired  by 
the  thought  that  he  is  not  working  for  to-day,  but  for  to- 
morrow. He  is  well  aware  that  he  is  still  surrounded  by 
too  many  "men  of  yesterday,"  who  delay  the  results  of  his 
work. 

Sometimes,  however,  he  may  feel  discour- 
aged  that  the  very  efficiency  he  has  succeeded 
in  reaching  at  the  cost  of  so  many  painstaking 
efforts,  in  the  economical  production  of  such  an  article  of 
endlessly  possible  uses,  as  Portland  Cement,  is  hopelessly 
lost  many  times  over  and  over  again,  by  the  inefficiency, 
waste  and  graft  of  middlemen  and  political  contractors,  by 
the  time  it  gets  on  our  public  roads,  or  in  our  public  build- 
ings.   Sometimes  the  chaos  of  ignorant  brutal 
The  man  of     waste  which  surrounds  him  everywhere  may 

science  pro-  .  J  J 

vides  for          try  his  patience.    Then  again,  he  has  a  vision 
eraSonsen       that  he  is  planting  a  tree  which  will  blossom 
for  his  children  and  will  bear  fruit  for  his 
grandchildren. 

In  the  meantime,  industrial  chemistry,  like  all  other  ap- 
plications of  science,  has  gradually  called  into  the  world 
an  increasing  number  of  men  of  newer  tendencies,  men  who 
New  type  of  bear  in  mind  the  future  rather  than  the  past, 

{^"denSfic     w^°  *iave  ac(luired  tne  h^t;  of  thinking  by 
education         well-established  facts,  instead  of  by  words,  of 

42 


aiming  at  efficiency  instead  of  striking  haphazard  at  ill-de- 
fined purposes.  Our  various  engineering  schools,  our 
universities,  are  turning  them  out  in  ever  increasing  num- 
bers, and  better  and  better  prepared  for  their  work.  Their 
very  training  has  fitted  them  out  to  become  the  most  broad- 
minded  progressive  citizens, 

Private  gain  However,  their  sphere  of  action,  until  now, 
or  public  seldom  goes  beyond  that  of  private  technical 

service  •«•'..  •  A      i 

enterprises  tor  private  gam.  And  yet,  there  is 
not  a  chemist,  not  an  engineer,  worthy  of  the  name,  who 
would  not  prefer  efficient,  honorable  public  service,  freed 
from  party  politics,  to  a  mere  money-making  job. 

But  most  governments  of  the  world  have 
been  run  for  so  long  almost  exclusively  by 
politicians?'"   lawyer-p°liticians,  that  we  have  come  to  con- 
sider this  as  an  unavoidable  evil,  until  some- 
times a  large  experiment  of  government  by  engineers,  like 
the  Panama  Canal,  opens  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that,  after 
all,  successful  government  is— first  and  last— a  matter  of 
efficiency,  according  to  the  principles  of  applied  science. 

Was  it  not  one  of  our  very  earliest  American 
Thompson  chemists,  Benjamin  Thompson,  of  Massachu- 
(Count  setts,  later  knighted  in  Europe  as  Count  Rum- 

gov-    f  ord,  who  put  in  shape  the  rather  entangled 
administration  of  Bavaria  by  introducing  sci- 
,  entific  methods  of  government? 

Pasteur  was  right  when  one  day,  exasperated  by  the 
politicians  who  were  running  his  beloved  France  to  ruin, 
he  exclaimed: 

"In  our  century,  science  is  the  soul  of  the 
and       prosperity  of  nations  and  the  living  source  of 
ofenation°7       al*  P™^688-     Undoubtedly,  the  tiring  daily 
discussions  of  politics  seem  to  be  our  guide. 
Empty  appearances!— What  really  leads  us  forward  are  a 
few  scientific  discoveries  and  their  applications." 

43 


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